Born: 3 Feb 1854 at Salt Lake City, Utah
Father: Israel Otis Barlow
Mother: Elizabeth Haven
Married: Laura Ann Jackson, 24 Jan 1876 at the Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Utah
We only know of our father's ancestors, back to his Grfather [sic] Nathan and our Grfather Jonathan. They were of English descent and came to America in an early day, settling in Mass. My father Israel Barlow was born in Granville, Hamdom Co., Mass. His father died and his mother and family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints after they had moved west to Illinois. He became acquainted with and married my mother Elizabeth Haven, who with her father John and his family had also joined the so-called Mormon Church. His wife Betsy (Howe) Haven bore him two sons and four daughters. Then she died and Grfather married Judithe Temple. She came to the valley and has two daughters still living. One is Maria Burton of Salt Lake City, age 90 (10 Apr 1916). The other, Eliza Ann Westover of Washington, Utah.
We can trace mother's ancestors back to the eighth generation to Richard Haven. He emigrated about two hundred years ago to Lynn, Mass. He was a carpenter by trade. Our lineage comes down to us through his son Moses, his son Joseph, to his son John, who is no. 25 on the chart. They were of religious character, as many of them were Deacons in their church, and Mother's brother John was a minister in the Congregationalist [Church].
My GrMother Betsy (Howe) Haven had three sisters, one was the mother of Brigham Young, and one the mother of Willard Richards, the other married Evan Greene, from whom Lula Greene Richards is a descendant. Mother had three sisters, Pamela, who married a Mr. Clark. She joined the Church, but he did not. Nancy was the wife of A.P. Rockwood of church fame. Mary married a Mr. Palmer and died in Weber Valley.
My parents passed through all the persecutions of the Saints in the early [days] of the church. Father was a member of Zions Camp and was with Bishop Partridge when he went to locate Nauvoo. He was ordained Pres of the 6th Quorum of Seventies. They came to Utah in 1848 and soon located in Bountiful, then known as Sessions Settlement.
Father went to Europe on a mission about 1854, when mother moved with her family back to Salt Lake, where I was born the 3rd Feb 1854. Three years later, on father's return, they moved back to their farm in Bountiful, where we lived in my boyhood days. It was then I had the care of my father's sheep, both winter and summer for a number of years.
When I grew older my time was spent on the farm in the canyon and on the range, doing the work of a young pioneer of early Utah. I knew what it was to go hungry and cold and even barefoot at times. My schooling was very limited, only going to school a few months each winter. When about sixteen years old I did a great deal of freighting to the different mining camps of Utah and also from Uinta at the mouth of Weber Canyon, which was the shipping station to Salt Lake City. When I was twenty, I became acquainted with Miss Laura A. Jackson of Centerville, and we were married on the 24th of Jan 1876 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City by Daniel H. Wells.
February 2, 1876, we went with a large company that were called to Arizona to colonize that state. We stayed there about one year and a half. We were called home on account of my father's illness. My father recovered at that time and later was ordained a Patriarch by Wilford Woodruff, the 8th Dec 1882. He died the 2nd Nov 1883. Mother died the 25 Dec 1892.
Most of our time we have lived in Bountiful except about ten years we spent in Idaho on a ranch, which I have sold just recently and bought a portion of the old Barlow farm. My occupation has been mostly farming and gardening.
My parents were honest and industrious and of a religious character. Their wise council and worthy example has greatly influenced my life. My life's work has been in rearing and educating a large family of eleven children, with humble environments and believe we have been fairly successful.
Wilford Barlow
Bountiful, Utah
Ordained to the 70th Quorum of Elders in 1874
Ordained to the Office of Seventy by William W. Willey on 18 Mar 1885
Ordained to the Office of High Priest by E. F. Richards on 14 May 1905
Wilford Barlow was ordained a High Priest by Ezra F. Richards , by Joel Parish, by Wilford Woodruff, by Brigham Young, by the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, who were ordained by Joseph Smith, who was ordained by Peter, James and John.
-from the Genealogical Record of Wilford Barlow - written 10 April 1916
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